32 Comments

That first one is real - and super scary! It's from an animal "rights" group trying to intimidate and scare students involved in research that uses animals in order to get the primary investigators (professors) to stop doing the research. If I were still on campus, I'd report those signs to security and try to get them taken down.

No lie, this shit is insane. From the website (which I'll post a comment below so this one gets posted immediately): "Students also need to understand that making the wrong choice will result in a lifetime of grief. Aspiring scientists envision curing cancer at the Mayo Clinic. We need to impart a new vision: car bombs, 24/7 security cameras, embarrassing home demonstrations, threats, injuries, and fear. And, of course, these students need to realize that any personal risk they are willing to assume will also be visited upon their parents, children, and nearest & dearest loved ones. The time to reconsider is now."

I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the "car bombs...threats, injuries, and fear" part as well as the "students need to realize that any personal risk they are willing to assume will also be visited upon their parents, children, and nearest and dearest loved ones."

Scary. Scary. Scary. I have no problems reporting this to higher authorities than Columbia Public Safety, however, I don't really know how to do so. Any ideas?

So go ahead and report it to Public Safety! I don't think it's worth bringing in the NYPD, since I'm sure they won't care/have bigger things to worry about. But Public Safety should be aware that an outside group (other than Fox) is threatening and attempting to harass Columbia students.

You guys are talking about what happens to lab animals like it was a cartoon. For students you're pretty stupid and lame. Did you also look at this at the NIO site?http://negotiationisover.c​om/wp-content/uploads/2011​/06/alternatives.pdfSeriously, it's horrific and not even science anymore to cut open animals when all these alternatives are available. In the future of biotech with bioinformatics, stem cell research, nanotechnology and computational biology, being able to dissect a turtle penis is going to get animal abusers laughed out the door trying to get a career. Any degree from UF Gainesville or Columbia NY or any other schools that continue to CHOOSE animal torture over alternatives will be garbage in just a year or 2.Now that's the rational approach. We will not have a minute of patience for anyone who will not listen. This is decent, educated information and if students choose to allow themselves to be p**sy whipped by old school professors then they will be targeted by Negotiation Is Over.

I don't support animal testing. However, meeting unethical actions with more unethical actions hardly seems like the reasonable thing to do.

It's radical people like you who soil the integrity of those who support otherwise just causes. Because you choose to act unethically and threaten with violence, your cause becomes discredited. It's a real shame.

Simply put, your group is nothing but irrational, unsophisticated and intellectually immature.

"and, btw, if i were ever to meet a quadriplegic who would rather volunteer an innocent animal to suffer than volunteer themselves, i would personally throw them out of their wheelchair, kick their arroganct speciesist ass into the gutter, and film them as they lay there helpless in the sewers like the waste of humanity that they are.

"then i would upload the video to nio and eat carrot chips with humus as i enjoyed watching them die a slow and torturous death over and over and over again.

"now, please don’t bother me again.

"you know nothing. you are a sadistic piece of arrogant shit. and you annoy me."

Don't you get that just by living your life, breathing, you are killing animals? Air and energy on planet Earth are a zero-sum game, and if all organisms are equal, the oxygen you need to live could be supporting countless flies, bacteria, and sundry other smaller animals.

Grow up and a pair students, you should be afraid of the other students and teachers that would kill/murder an animal for a lame educational that results in a life of gross negligence of a moral and ethical fiber immersed in greed and corruption, applying for grants to continue murdering animals when it is clear there are alternative options in this century. Please think for yourself and be progressive into the future..do not believe the lies of the antiquated system.

this editorial which appeared in nature neuroscience after an animal rights group almost accidentally firebombed an old woman in los angeles offers a pretty even take on the issue.

the takeaway is, animal rights groups absolutely have the right to protest, inform and change public opinion through peaceful means thereby changing public policy on the use of animals in research, but use of violence against individuals is essentially a wrongful forcing of their viewpoint upon others, be it biomedical researchers or those who benefit from their work:

the use of animals in biomedical research is a very complex issue that is not easily reduced. on the one hand, it is certainly gruesome. on the other, as someone who has directly been affected (an immediate family member is still alive today, thanks to some gruesome research involving pigs in maryland) by the benefits it can bring, at least for me, the issue is really not that simple. are there alternatives? sure. are they ready to replace the use of animals? it doesn't seem to be so. animal research is a very unpleasant and expensive affair: do you think that those who engage in it would do so if they didn't believe it was the only real way?

no matter what, violence and intimidation are not the path to just and moral resolutions for complex issues.